No infringement of copyright is intended by these fan pages; production companies of shows this site covers retain all rights to the sounds, images, and information contained herein. No challenge to copyright is implied.

Web design by Jason Elliott. Logo by Chico Alexander.

Episode 2.1 - June 21This all started
with a little show called "Meet My Folks" (and some
people
could argue that it started before that - back to a
little movie featuring Ben
Stiller, Robert DeNiro and a very famous lie detector
scene). This turned into a show that I originally panned
(giving a D to it) that lasted for 2 seasons in its
original format, then last summer turned into a
"Bachelor-esque" dating show which, according to the
promos, "captured America's heart". Well, it didn't do
that for me, but since I covered the show in it's
original format, I figured I may as well cover the show
in this one.

So without further delay, here is the second series of
"Who Wants to Marry My Dad!"

Here's the synopsis - daddy wants to find love, and he
gets a collection of lovely women to date - and
hopefully marry. The catch? The selection of who gets to
stay or leave is not made by daddy - but from his three
daughters. Hopefully, they will do a better job than the
kids in the first edition, as daddy wound up not
marrying who they selected - but they are still all good
friends (what exactly does THAT mean? Well, we didn't
wind up clawing each others eyeballs out, so we are good
friends? Well?)

We start at Saturday at 10 am, at the (pseudo) residence
of the Oklands. Dad is excited to meet the women, while
the women decided that he will meet the women
undercover. Before we meet the women that daddy will
pick from, let's meet the daughters -

Jennifer, 27, the middle sister - She wants to bring a
reality check to the show. You're in a fake house with
fax machines waiting to go off with wacky info, cameras
all over the place, and a man with a lie detector in
your basement. Yeah, good luck on the reality check.

Brooke, 24, youngest sister - She's going to go on her
'gut' feeling. That can't possibly be a good thing on
this sort of show.

Nicole, 27, the oldest sister - She's looking for dad to
find the women of his dreams. Since we know the record
of how this works out (True Love - 1, Thanks but no
thanks - 8,700,456,083), I leave Nicole the same advice
for Jennifer.

So we know nothing so far about the actual guy that
everyone is talking about, but who needs to know
anything about him? Let's meet the women who will be
going after the anonymous guy...

Reality Dating Contender #1 - Meryl, brunette, 40,
divorced, 3 children. She is here because she is hoping
that dad is "her guy".

Reality Dating Contender #2 - Michelle, blonde farm girl
from Missouri. She hasn't found what she's looking for,
so she's come all the way to California to find it.

Reality Dating Contender #3 - Debbie, blonde (almost the
exact same hairstyle as Michelle). She is used to
wearing the pants in the family - and the wants someone
to share those pants with her. Sounds kinky - but is she
the right fit for a seemingly easy-going dad?

Reality Dating Contender #4 - Nicole, long brown hair,
40, single, never been married, no kids, 3 cats. She
tells the kids that she can't wait to meet
everyone and she looks like an early favorite here.

Jennifer says that if
anyone seems superficial or fake, they won't be hanging
around too long. Right after that we get... Reality
Dating Contender #5 - Sharon, 34 (?), blonde cropped
hair. She is bubbly and says that fate has brought her
to the show, telling the daughters that "I am hear to
hopefully meet the man of my dreams, and hopefully your
dad's going to be it." If that doesn't sound fake and
cheesy, nothing does. The other contenders comment that
she has great legs, while I am wondering why someone who
could be the girl's sister is applying to be their
mother figure. I don't see her sticking around for too
long.

At least Sharon didn't hug the kids. Reality Dating
Contender #6 - Tammy, shoulder-length brown hair - does,
adding that her strategy is to win over the kids - which
is smart when you think about it, since they are the
ones who are making the decisions.

Reality Dating Contender #7 - Layne, brownish-blondish,
42. Her strategy is to just be herself and let the
kids fall in love with her. Sounds very altruistic - but
is it realistic?

Reality Dating Contender #8 - Stacy, 39, brown hair with
a white streak on top. She has men who are her best
friends - she now wants one that she can spend the rest
of her life with. She asks the daughter is they are
tough critics. Nicole's response - "Wouldn't you like to
know?" I have a feeling they will all be knowing soon...

Reality Dating Contender #9 - Sarah, earlength brown
hair - is concerned
about relating to the girls, since she was brought up
with just brothers and no sisters. She has a 13 year old
son, and was hoping that the girls would like a brother.
Nicole seems hooked on her, and she may be a contender
as well.

Reality Dating Contender #10 - Lola, short black hair.
Her strategy is to keep her eyes and ears open and
remember everything that she has learned. Now she
doesn't say anything about love. Could she be the
villainess of the show?

Reality Dating Contender #11 - Suzanne, 39, sporting a
blonde mullet and nice shiny long Dracula-style
incisors. Her strategy is to think with her heart, open
up and get to know the family. She strikes a chord with
Brooke and I think she may be sticking around.

Reality Dating Contender #12 - Tina, 36, cheeklength
blondish/brownish hair, very tan. Her strategy is to be
very honest and she tells the women that she's there to
find a family.

Reality Dating Contender #13 - Melanie, 38, shoulder
length blonde hair in an almost Susan Dey-like setting.
She wants a ring on her finger and a wedding to be
planned. She gets points for eagerness, if not naivete.

The daughters tell the
13 candidates that they will meet dad soon - but first
of all, Nicole reads a letter from her dad, who we find
out actually does have a name - Marty. The letter states
how excited he is to be on the show, and how he wants to
find a women since he has worked very hard in his life.
While they are reading the letter, Nicole starts to tear
in the middle of it. That gets the traditional Awwwww
from the contenders and a traditional AwwwwBARF from me.
I have a feeling I will be using that phrase A LOT when
it comes to recapping this season.

Jennifer tells the contenders that the show is "Who
Wants to Marry My Dad", and to start, the women will get
to go out shopping... for engagement rings. Gee, no
underlining theme for what the producers are really
looking for, right? At the ring store, the manager (who
looks suspiciously like Burt Luddin) tells the women
that they will be escorted into a private room one at a
time. They will have two people escorting him - a blonde
woman and "Craig" - who is actually Marty in disguise.
Here's the first secret that the show is pulling, and I
actually like it.

Does Marty like what he is hearing from the women?
Maybe, but when the women ask him questions about the
rings, he comes off as knowledgeable as a brick-layer
being asked about the finest in perfumes. As Marty talks
to the women, it seems that Michelle seems wishy-washy
about the experience, but Suzanne wanted to go on
because it seems to her like the dad would be serious
about finding a relationship - and that's what she's
looking for. She gets LOTS of brownie points for the
answer.

Debbie says that this show has more class than the
others dating shows (have you actually SEEN the first
season of this show, Debbie?). Marty asks the women if
they are ready to get married - and we get yes's from
most of them - but Lola isn't too sure and my
self-proclaimed villainess may not stick around long
enough to be a villainess. Sharon says that you never
know - and that's not a good thing to say either. Even
worse is Sharon asking Marty if he's married - and it
may be time for Sharon to be shown the door.

As for the other ladies - Sarah thinks that this would
be a great story for
the grandchildren as she says this with a wink, while
Nicole says that if this
doesn't work out, she's going to go back to the jewelry
store and ask "Craig" out. Little does she know...

We go back to the house, and the women are greeted by
the daughters, who give them a tour - which includes a
bedroom with all of the women living together. Not only
do they share the same bedroom, they also have to share
the same bathroom, which gets the women groaning like
they found out their airline meal would be fried oysters
covered in mozzarella cheese. With that, the ladies are
sent to retire for the evening - and they still haven't
formally met the guy they are pursuing.

They will meet him early Sunday morning, as they are
unceremoniously woken by the daughters at 7am. After the
early am scramble, the women congregate to the main
room, where the door opens up and in walks... a delivery
man with a note. The note reads that two of the 13 women
will now be eliminated - without ever getting to meet
the father. The girls look at each other, stunned, while
the women are wondering which two of them would be
leaving without even knowing that they already met the
guy that they are competing for. Now THAT'S harsh.

The girls say that it really sucks, while Nicole starts
to bawl again. The daughters go into the back to discuss
who they will cut. They start to talk about Tina and
Michelle and Sarah and Debbie - but they can't come to a
consensus on any of them. The fact that they don't even
know Marty's reaction to the women makes this even
tougher - but they decide that the eliminated women
are... Tina and Debbie. Tina thinks that it's fate,
while Debbie is disappointed, but she enjoyed her stay.
Sharon was upset because Debbie was the 'mother' of the
group. Well, its obvious that the girls didn't see the
jewelry store tape, because if they did, Sharon would be
one of the people escorted out the door. Tina and Debbie
are escorted to the MMD Shuttle Escort Service, which
reads... "Here Today, Gone... Today." Nice. I wonder if
Debbie still thinks that the show is as classy as she
thought it was...

The girls tell the remaining women that their father
should be showing up any minute - like right behind
them, when he says "Are you looking for me?" All of the
women turned around, shocked to see... Craig from the
jewelry store. The girls scream in delight, with Nicole
being happy that the hot jeweler dude is the guy they
are competing for.

Montage about Monty Okland. He worked 6 days a week to
put the girls through school. The girls want him to have
some freedom and they want to make sure that he has that
special woman in his life. Basically, this sound like
every other background montage that you've ever heard
of. Yaaawwwwwwn.

Marty apologizes for the jewelry deception yesterday and
he welcomes them all into their faux house. The
daughters set up a mixer so Marty gets some one-on-one
time with each of the ladies. Sharon goes first - and
Marty gives her a necklace with an 'S' on it. Sharon
thinks that she may have had a connection - but she
shouldn't be, as ALL of the women get necklaces with
their first letter on it. Very sneaky, Marty. Tammy
liked his eyes while Nicole, who also gets a necklace,
was happy that he wasn't allergic to cats.

When the evening was done, Marty tells the girls that he
would like to make a toast to them. He doesn't make a
toast to the phone, but the phone rings, which signifies
bad news for the ladies. The daughters have to pick the
2 most incompatible women and clear the table. One of
those two women will be leaving the house.

That sets up a very stressful atmosphere for breakfast,
where none of them are very talkative. Based on the
earlier conversation from the episode, I would think
that Michele and Sarah would be clearing the table.
Sarah, who says that she was never voted least
compatible with anyone, will be cleaning up, but the
other person is Layne, which means that Michele must
have done something right - or that Layne did something
wrong.

Someone who will be doing something right is the LIE
DETECTOR MAN!!!! Although we get a new lie detector man,
we have the same premise as the old show - the daughters
ask the women questions, and the Polygraph Test Taker
tells the girls if she is telling the truth.

Layne gets to go first as both women are taken to a
different room of the house. Layne says that she would
let Marty use her toothbrush (TRUE), that she would love
him even if he loved Barry Manilow (TRUE) and that she
did dye her hair because she heard that dad did not like
blondes (TRUE). Interesting. She did say that she was
not pretending to like them just to be picked (LIE) and
that she would not like dad any more if he didn't have
any kids (LIE).

OUCH! Well, I guess there was a very good reason why the
kids selected Layne over Michelle. Layne is pretty much
toast unless Sarah screws up the lie detector test - and
she starts it off on the wrong foot by saying that she
would help the girls pay their rent (LIE). She said that
she is not a good cook (TRUE) and would find dad
attractive even if he was bald (TRUE). She did say that
she would flirt enough with their boyfriends (TRUE) and
that she was mature enough to be married (LIE).

It looks like the girls were dead-on with their
assessment with both of them, and whoever survives this
isn't going to be around for long. I think that Layne is
toast. The girls thank the women for taking the
polygraph test, but they decide to get rid of... Layne.
Sarah gives out a smile of relief as an upset Layne
wants to know what tests she failed on the lie detector
test. Well, now she knows.

But we're not done yet. Each episode, Dad gets to invite
a woman for an after-dinner nightcap. The women he picks
is... the same woman that he is talking to and thanking
her for disguising herself as his sister-in-law. Now
before you accuse the show of stealing ideas from The
Bachelor, I'd like to point out that Meet My Folks
(which created this show) actually used this idea to
kick off their second season of the show, so they
actually created this idea before The Bachelor did.
Needless to say, we don't find out who that woman is as
the episode comes to a close.

Before we get to my take, lets look at the little
non-disclaimers at the end of this show, shall we? 1.
Contestants are paid a stipend just for showing up. 2.
Whoever wins will take a trip - BUT they have the option
of taking a
SEPARATE trip with someone else that with Marty. (Hmmmmmmmm).
3. The family does not stay at the house where this is
being filmed at (Well, Duh.). 4. The daughters MAY have
consulted with the producers regarding their choices and
decisions (so if you think that the producers told them
who to get rid of, they did, and if you think that the
producers didn't tell them who to get rid of, they
didn't).

My Take? Well, I didn't like this show at all - until I
had to sit through two full seasons of The Bachelor. I
changed my mind with the first series and this series
looks good early. They not only create new dating ideas
that other major shows steal (see The Bachelor), but
what they do perform, they perform well. This should be
a refreshing change from those plain old mushy love
shows that redirect the viewer from what's going on as
we actually have contestants with personality.

Next week, we'll observe more stunts that the producers
pull as we see who the spy is and who else is leaving
the happy house.